Fig. 15. H. Minima and two of its hybrids, Westbrook and Pooshee.
Specimens of this nut were secured from Dr. J. F. Wilson, Poulan, Ga., who received them from Prof. Burgess, Clemson College, S. C. The nut presents exactly the same characteristics as the Westbrook, except in flavor and color of kernel. It, too, is doubtless a hybrid, H. minima x H. pecan. The original tree of this variety stands by or in the old Ravenel cemetery, near Pinopolis, Berkely county, S. C.
Photo by Dr. Wm. Trelease.
Fig. 16.
The Schneck Hybrid.
Schneck. In the autumn of 1894, Dr. J. Schneck, of Mt. Carmel, Ill., and F. Reppert, of Muscatine, Iowa, sent to the herbarium twigs and fruit of bottom-land trees that appear to be hybrids of this species with the pecan. The bark of the Iowa tree is described as being much like that of the Mockernut, while the tree of Dr. Schneck is smooth-barked, resembling the pecan. So far as I have seen them, the twigs of both might pass for those of alba, except that the outer scales of the terminal buds are persistent, while the foliage, though intermediate, is strongly suggestive of that of the pecan. The fruit is oblong, almost 2 inches long, the husk 6 mm. thick, parted nearly to the base, with strongly elevated margins to the segments, and rather persistent on the tree. The nuts are nearly as pale as in the Shagbark, conspicuously brown striped, slightly 4-celled at the very base, and with a wall only 1 mm. thick. As is usual in ALBA, they are upwardly attenuate, and frequently the kernel is abortive. (Trelease, Wm., 7th Report Mo. Bot. Garden, 1896, pp. 44-45.)
Westbrook. Size small, 1-3/8 x 7/8 inches; ovate, flattened, prominently sutured; color brown with a few indistinct brownish streaks close to the apex; base rounded; apex wedge-shaped, ridge, abruptly-pointed; shell rough and irregular, thin, 8.5 mm.; partitions rather thin, 4-celled at base; kernel reddish-brown, much wrinkled, sutures of moderate width and depth, halves divided at the base, much corrugated in cross section; flavor decidedly bitter and puckery.
The parent tree is one standing in the yard of J. H. Westbrook, Mt. Olive, N. C., and grew from what, to all appearances, was a pecan nut. The foliage and general aspect of the tree closely resembles the pecan, though the serrations on the leaves are coarser and larger. The fruit resembles, in many respects, that of Hicoria minima, and, in short, it appears to be a well-marked hybrid between that species and Hicoria pecan.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Taylor, Wm. A., Yearbook, 1904.